UN Says 68 Bodies Found In Soccer Field In Ivory Coast

A video still shows Laurent Gbagbo after being arrested in Abidjan on April 11.

The United Nations human rights chief in Ivory Coast says UN investigators have established there were at least 68 bodies in a mass grave recently discovered on a soccer field in the country's commercial capital, Abidjan.

Guillaume Ngefa, the deputy director of the human rights division of the UN mission, said on May 10 that the victims were likely killed by pro-Laurent Gbagbo militias on April 12, the day after the strongman was arrested.

Ngefa says investigators visited the site on May 6 and photographed the 10 burial mounds in the mass grave.

They interviewed witnesses who described the killings and family members who identified the dead inside the graves.

Ngefa said from Abidjan that the largest grave is believed to hold 31 bodies.

Reuters